This invention relates generally to education and, more particularly, to computer learning based on question asking.
Question asking is an important aspect in learning because we have a better understanding in a subject if we can ask questions. As opposed to passive learning where we just absorb like a sponge, active learning based on asking questions enhances understanding and helps us remember. However, if a person is learning from a computer system, he does not have the luxury of having a question-and-answer dialog with the computer.
Asking questions not only focuses our attention on the subject, it also fills gaps in our understanding. When we are learning from an instructor, typically we cannot comprehend everything. As our misunderstanding grows, very soon we begin to lose track of the subject, and our interest in the subject wanes. Similarly, we lose interest in reading a book with many individuals if we confuse their names. During those instances, asking questions to fill our gaps of misunderstanding might rekindle our interest in the subject or the book.
A user's questions on a subject also indicate how much he understands the subject. If the user repeatedly asks questions in a certain area, he is weak in that area.
In view of the importance of question asking, many instructors include them in teaching. One of the most famous teachers--Socrates--even used questions as his main tool to stimulate thinking and to teach. However, when a computer teaches, the users cannot question the computer the same way he can question his instructor.
Learning through a computer has its benefits. Computer allows a user to learn at his own pace. For a class of thirty, typically the instructor will not hold up the class just to clarify issues for one student. If students' levels of understanding are not the same, the instructor has to leave some of them behind. This problematic situation is prevalent in a classroom with students having different cultural backgrounds and non-uniform understanding levels. Computers can ameliorate such problems. If each student is taught by his computer, he can control the computer so as to learn at his own pace.
However, learning from a computer has its handicap. When the student needs an answer for a question, problem arises because the computer cannot understand his question.
There are computers responding to questions. One is the system to locate books used in many libraries. Users can enter search-requests for books into the system. But such systems are primitive as compared to those where a user can learn a subject by asking questions.
Another system responding to questions is called Elisa. It responds to questions, and tries to emulate a psychiatrist. A user enters a question into Elisa, which changes the entered question around to respond to the user. For example, the user enters, "I feel bad." Elisa might respond, "Why do you feel bad?" The system gets the user to talk, and presumably, the user feels better afterwards. The goal of the system is not to understand the user, but to encourage the user to communicate his problem.
There are also systems that respond to questions written in computer languages. In such systems, the user re-formulates his question into a program to access and to process information from a database. Someone not familiar with programming languages cannot get an answer from those systems.
It should have been obvious that there is a need for a method and a system that can teach a subject through responding to a user's questions.